This process isn't actually vacuum metallizing, it's an electro plating process the same as they use on metal parts. The plastic is prepared with a conductive coating and then copper/nickel plated and them chrome plated. The resulting finish is a lot more durable than vacuum metalisation.

I had my parts done by this company is South Australia, Australia. They are very good at what they do

nice attention to detail adzmax, also cool to see people stick with genuine original than aftermarket parts

i joined up on here just to ask,

how do you buy your parts from Yahoo Japan Auctions? i found not only was the language an obstacle, but it seems sellers over there don't want to deal with off shore buyers. do you have an in-between you speak to, or can you speak Japanese so you're able to convince sellers to ship to Aus?

I had these door skins (cards) delivered from Japan last week. They are in pretty good condition overall but will need some work. They are from a late model GTX and had the extended arm rests which have been filled. The finish leaves a bit to be desired but it's nothing that can't be fixed. I'll drop them into the Auto trimmer I'm using this week.

After getting my tail light rings back from chroming the next parts to do were the fuel cap and breather.

I pulled apart the fuel cap completely so I could send the cover alone. The pin in held in place with a small cir-clip, once removed it just slides out with the spring etc. I'm going to look at fixing the lock up also, it's pretty sloppy. Not sure what the options are here at the moment.

Just got the parts back today and they look great.

Next I need to mask them off then respray the parts that should be black. No doubt this will be a fiddly job because the top of the fins need to be chrome. I'll have to wipe the paint of by hand with a cotton tip and some thinners after it's sprayed. I'd LOVE to know how this was done from factory

I've also got some centre caps coming which I'll mask with the "R" logo and then spray in a metallic black to complete the original look.

Work has been incredibly busy so I haven't found much time to do any work on the car recently. Last night I finally found time to complete the tail light rings and breather/fuel caps. Masking them was a pretty fiddly task as there are many small faces and lots of angles.

Once the parts were fully masked off Troy hit them with some 3M adhesion promoter to help the paint stick to the chrome surface and then a 2 part black with flat clear. Then I had to use some thinners and cotton tips to remove paint off the top of the fins.

Then time for some dinner. Troy's shop is just down the road from one of the best Curry shops I've been to, and they make a great curry pizza too!

So finally these parts are complete, they now look brand new again, much nicer than the way they started out.

Before -

After -

Now all I need is some replacement centre caps. I'm not sure if I'll get these from City Auto in Japan or make them yet....

I dug out this gem tonight. I picked it up from Japan a few years ago as new old stock. It suffered some minor damage in storage, a couple of scuffs on the paint work. We tried using some thinners to clean off the paint scuffs and the original paint wiped straight off. It turns out The original paint is acrylic (duh...) so its a bit of a blessing in disguise, I'd much rather repaint the whole piece in 2 pack and match the over fenders and grill. The thing I'm most pleased about is that having this part will allow us to colour match to factory spec.

The door trims are pretty good but they are not up to standard so I'm going to replace them. I took them to my auto trimmer he felt that while they are nice, we are best to remake the whole interior form scratch to keep the finish and pattern consistent. I'm going to sell them.

No problems regarding the paint code, I'm more that happy to let you know what we find out.

The door trims are tough hey Kev, there is no way to chrome them seeing they are attached to the skins. I've not had any experience with these products. Providing the job is prepared and masked properly I can't see why it wouldn't be possible to at least get a nice metallic finish. How good the chrome look is would be dependent on the product. I'd be keen to know though

I've been meaning to give that stuff a try on the door cards for years It's pretty dear tho, $300 (IIRC) from VP Paints, but I suppose that one kit will probably do all the plastic chrome in the cabin and then some

hey ho ole rusty will ive to fight another day!Just thought id clear up some things....the adhesion promoter is a dupont product call 222s.Also in regards to the alsa stuff i have that stuff here also,its not really that great.There are a few products out there that get the same results as the alsa stuff....one made in australia is mirror chrome by DNA.I spose it would be ok on small parts but it goes a bit milky when you put the clear over the top....i have heard of guys tinting off the clear with a touch of blue to wake it up a bit....i had some pictures of an old triumph bonneville i painted in it....i cant find them...you paint the part in gloss black first,bake it....make sure its faultless then you haze the lightest coat of this stuff on,then clear it